Celebrating the UN Year of Cooperatives

The United Nations has designated 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives to shine a global spotlight on the power of collective action and community-driven development. This year-long celebration highlights the essential role that cooperatives play in promoting social equity and democratic management. In this blog post I want to share a few initiatives in my network that are helping to make this celebration a success, including a tour of housing coops in Brighton and Hove, presentations by European student housing cooperators at the International Social Housing Festival in Dublin and Co-operative Congress in Rochdale and submissions to the European Commission's Affordable Housing Consultation.

BHCLT housing coop tour participants in the garden of Out of Town

Learning first-hand about housing coops in Brighton

In June, I organized a local housing cooperative tour on behalf of the Brighton and Hove Community Land Trust (BHCLT). Although housing coops only make up a very small fraction of the housing stock in the UK, and in Brighton, they show how housing challenges can be addressed through a democratic, community-led alternative to traditional homeownership and rental models. In a housing market dominated by high costs, limited availability and insecure tenancy, co-ops provide more affordable, sustainable and resident-controlled housing. Members collectively manage their properties and make decisions that reflect their needs rather than the priorities of landlords or developers.

To learn more about this alternative, participants in the BHCLT housing tour, including local councillors, architects and designers, housing activists, academics and students, visited 5 local housing coops. As you can read here, the tour, which was supported by the University of Sussex, was a full success, with one participant reflecting that

“I learned a great deal, much of which was entirely new to me. The variety of models you showed me was particularly striking. What stood out most was how each project effectively decommodified the property it occupied. I understand that this is not necessarily the main purpose of a co-op, but it seems like a very positive side-effect. In terms of lifestyle, the way of living seemed fairly standard to me. The main difference was the strong emphasis on organisation and collective management.”

Here are the coops we visited:

Rosa Bridge Housing Co-operative, a small, queer, feminist housing cooperative that provides secure, affordable housing to those facing barriers in the city’s housing market, with a focus on LGBTQIA+ people and others often excluded from stable housing.

Bunker, an award-winning fully mutual housing cooperative with a mission to build and self-manage high-quality homes that remain affordable in perpetuity for local people in housing need. Bunker transformed a small former garage plot into a beautiful sustainable home through community self-build.

SEASALT, a student-led cooperative providing affordable, democratic and sustainable housing supported by BHCLT.

Out of Town (OOT), a long-standing housing co-operative that has squatted, rented and owned homes since the early 2000s. The co-op is a member of the Radical Routes network and provides an affordable inter-generational living environment.

Two Piers, Brighton's largest and oldest housing coop serving 68 members living across a purpose‑built block and multiple shared houses. We visited its flagship Christchurch block, a purpose-built, communal development completed in 1988, which features 11 flats arranged around a shared garden and community space.

ESCHA in Dublin and Rochdale

The European Student Cooperative Housing Alliance (ESCHA) is a growing pan‑European network uniting student housing co‑operatives to amplify their collective impact and brings together coops from 8 countries. It was established to tackle shared challenges like funding hurdles, high tenant turnover and lack of awareness about student housing coops and to foster collaboration by offering exchange programmes, workshops and practical resources. As a supporting member, I attended ESCHA's meetings in Geneva last year, which was an inspiring learning opportunity for everybody.

This June, several ESCHA members met up in Dublin for the International Social Housing Festival, where they presented a session titled “Empowering the Next Generation: Building Student Housing Cooperatives.” It showcased ESCHA’s vision for sustainable, democratically governed student housing through speakers from across the continent, who highlighted real-world co‑op success stories and shared practical strategies to inspire universities, policymakers and young activists.

Participants in the 2025 ISHF panel on student housing cooperatives, image source: https://urbamonde.org/news/article/ishf-construire-des-ponts-grace-au-logement-collaboratif?lang=fr

The presentation also celebrated the success of the Glasgow Student Housing Cooperative, which recently acquired its own home after many years of searching with the help of Student Coop Homes, the UK's national umbrella organization. The Glasgow coop will also feature at the National Youth Summit ,which is being organized as part of the Co-operative Congress, the annual conference of COOPS UK, which this year takes place in historic Rochdale. This provides another opportunity for SCH and ESCHA members to gather and exchange experiences, advice and stories.

Informing Policy Spaces

Student housing cooperators are also actively contributing expertise to policy debates. Their lived experience and grassroots insight are essential for shaping policies aimed at creating more equitable, affordable and democratic student accommodation. Through their policy inputs they help ensure that support structures like funding models, legal frameworks and institutional partnerships are aligned with the real needs and aspirations of students.

Ruth Elliott, Vice-president for Community at Edinburgh University Student Association, recently wrote a piece for WONKHE, a blog that brings together expert analysis, debate and insight for the Higher Education sector. Arguing that “Student housing co‑operatives would take the pressure off”, Ruth shows that 75% of students fall below the UK poverty line after housing costs, and stresses the impact high rents are having on students' mental health and ability to carry out their studies successfully. She advocates for student housing co‑operatives as a viable, community-driven solution to reduce financial strain and enhance wellbeing, and calls on universities and policymakers to support their establishment and growth. Edinburgh is home to the UK's largest student housing coop, an inspiring example of what students' collective action can achieve that has been home to over 1000 students over the past 11 years.

In the wider European policy landscape, ESCHA submitted a contribution to the European Union's Public Consultation, which will inform the first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan to be published by the European Commission in 2026. The Cork Student Housing Coop was mentioned in a report by Housing Europe on housing cooperatives in Europe (p22), and the Irish Student Union AMLÉ also made a contribution to the EU consultation.

"We recommend:

1. Providing grants to establish specialist support structures for student housing co-ops and student-led housing models across the EU.

2. Establishing an EU-level grants and loans programme to kick-start a new wave of student housing co-ops and student-led housing models.

3. Establishing technical assistance and resources that reduce institutional barriers at local, regional, and national government levels.

4. Intervene in the banking sector and remove artificial barriers to lending for housing co-ops.

5. Advocate for co-ordinated policy efforts to facilitate the replication of successful models across Member States."

ESCHA recommendations to EU's Affordable Housing Consultation

As you can see from these diverse initiatives, housing coops in general, and student housing coops in particular, are an important part of the 2025 UN Year of Cooperatives. Their creators are building alternative - more democratic, affordable and decommodified -housing provisions through practical action, awareness raising and policy inputs. I continue to be inspired by learning about this work and participating in it through my own action research.